This invention pertains to a toy of an educational nature and especially one adapted to teach young children differences between commonly used coins and the relative values thereof. Educational aids have been used heretofore in various ways and especially for purposes of teaching language and words. So-called flash cards and the like are one example of this type of education. Teaching young children the relative value of coins, however, presents different problems from that of learning to read, particularly in relation to the relative value of various coins and the present invention is directed to that form of education.
Heretofore, attempts have been made to teach children the relative value of coins and one such example comprises the subject matter of prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,864, dated Jan. 13, 1970, to C. T. McManus. The device covered by said patent utilizes actual coins, whereas the present invention encompasses the use of play coins, preferably formed from plastic and therefore more in the nature of a toy as well as an educational device.
The handling of coins in cards also is old and well known, such devices being used by banks, savings institutions and the like to encourage the accumulation of coins and different sizes of openings or slots are provided in such cards respectively to receive coins of different value in certain locations on the card.
Especially for purposes of rendering the present invention in the form of a toy as well as an educational device, the invention has been adapted to a coin holding device somewhat in the nature of devices commonly used by ticket dispensers, street car conductors and many other types of personnel handling money and having need for making quick change in the nature of coins rather than paper money. Typical examples of metallic coin holder of the type referred to comprise the subject matter of relatively old prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 530,997, to C. F. Kraump, dated Dec. 18, 1894, and U.S. Pat. No. 1,226,181, to M. C. Bruhn, dated May 15, 1917. The coin holding and dispensing devices shown in said patents however show in general coin receiving slots of substantially uniform width but of different lengths corresponding to the diameters of the coins to be disposed in cylindrical receptacles and the devices also include pivoted levers such as bell cranks which actuate pivoted discharge members in the lower portions of the cylindrical receptacles. Although these prior devices suggest the structures to which the present invention has been adapted, the utilization of plastic in molded form to manufacture the present invention has required the introduction of certain structures not found in nor taught by the aforementioned prior patents, details of such plastic obstructions being set forth in the following specification.